Re:World's steepest funicular railway opens in Switzerland
by mikestew on Saturday December 16, 2017 @10:49AM
(#15940027)
It’s related to a ratio. A ~6 degree slope would have you dropping one meter for every ten meters you move forward: 10%. 45 degrees means one meter for every meter forward: 100%. Keep plotting that out and it approaches infinity as you reach 90 degrees (or just ask, “for every meter forward, how many up/down?” if it is 90 degrees.)
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Re:World's steepest funicular railway opens in Switzerland
by lisper on Saturday December 16, 2017 @02:41PM
(#15941485)
The problem is that "forward" is ambiguous. You can measure it relative to your direction of travel, or perpendicular to the gravitational vector. For small gradients these are more or less the same, but the steeper the slope the more these two measures diverge.